Alta Advisers Ltd Grows Stock Position in QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM)

Alta Advisers Ltd raised its position in shares of QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM - Free Report) by 57.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,781 shares of the wireless technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares during the quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings in QUALCOMM were worth $888,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in QUALCOMM by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 113,730,186 shares of the wireless technology company's stock worth $17,471,231,000 after buying an additional 707,468 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of QUALCOMM by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,798,900 shares of the wireless technology company's stock worth $4,262,826,000 after acquiring an additional 670,432 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of QUALCOMM during the fourth quarter worth $2,721,882,000. Amundi lifted its position in QUALCOMM by 36.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 14,579,529 shares of the wireless technology company's stock valued at $2,313,634,000 after purchasing an additional 3,905,918 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in QUALCOMM by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,289,513 shares of the wireless technology company's stock worth $2,041,535,000 after purchasing an additional 1,493,076 shares during the period. 74.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at QUALCOMM

In other news, major shareholder Inc/De Qualcomm sold 412,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.00, for a total transaction of $6,600,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Akash J. Palkhiwala sold 3,333 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.28, for a total transaction of $537,546.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 46,446 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,490,810.88. This trade represents a 6.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 426,797 shares of company stock worth $8,672,710. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company's stock.

QUALCOMM Stock Up 1.8%

NASDAQ:QCOM traded up $2.92 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $162.32. 8,911,691 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,541,057. QUALCOMM Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $120.80 and a fifty-two week high of $211.09. The company has a market capitalization of $178.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 2.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $150.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $154.82.

QUALCOMM (NASDAQ:QCOM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The wireless technology company reported $2.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.82 by $0.03. QUALCOMM had a return on equity of 40.11% and a net margin of 26.11%. The firm had revenue of $10.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.44 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that QUALCOMM Incorporated will post 9.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

QUALCOMM Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.89 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $3.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. This is an increase from QUALCOMM's previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. QUALCOMM's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on QCOM. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on QUALCOMM from $175.00 to $140.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on QUALCOMM from $185.00 to $145.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of QUALCOMM from $250.00 to $216.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of QUALCOMM from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Benchmark dropped their price target on shares of QUALCOMM from $240.00 to $200.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $186.96.

QUALCOMM Company Profile

QUALCOMM Incorporated engages in the development and commercialization of foundational technologies for the wireless industry worldwide. It operates through three segments: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT); Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL); and Qualcomm Strategic Initiatives (QSI). The QCT segment develops and supplies integrated circuits and system software based on 3G/4G/5G and other technologies for use in wireless voice and data communications, networking, computing, multimedia, and position location products.